President Barack Obama has chosen a Republican congressman to be the new secretary of the Army, adding to the ranks of opposition party figures in his administration.

Mistakes that put patients at three Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals at risk of possible exposure to HIV and other infectious body fluids will be discussed by a congressional panel. Among more than 10,000 former VA patients in Murfreesboro, Miami and Augusta, Ga., who the VA has warned to get follow-up blood checks, five have tested positive for HIV and 39 have tested positive for hepatitis.

The Senate has voted to prohibit credit card companies from arbitrarily raising an individual’s interest rate and charging many of the exorbitant fees. The vote was 90-5. With the House on track to endorse the measure by week’s end, President Barack Obama could see a bill on his desk by the end of the week.

The Obama administration has unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the financial system designed to impose greater regulation on major players like hedge funds.

The lavender dress a South Carolina teen wore to Washington as she helped President Obama bring national attention to the plight of the state’s rundown rural schools is heading to the State Museum.

A House panel is expected to approve Wednesday sweeping tobacco regulation that would put the bill on pace for House passage far earlier in the congressional session than in the last Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Committee vote, expected Wednesday afternoon or evening, would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to police the tobacco industry.

House Democratic leaders have abruptly canceled votes on legislation to let bankruptcy judges reduce the principal and interest rate on mortgages for debt-strapped homeowners. The measure, backed by President Barack Obama, is the most controversial part of a broader housing package that was expected to pass on Thursday.

When 14-year-old Ty’sheoma Bethea went to her local library to write a letter to Congress about the conditions at her school, she never dreamed what the result would be. But the 8th grader at J.V. Martin Junior High in Dillon got to sit next to First Lady Michelle Obama in the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday night as President Barack Obama talked about Ty’sheoma and the needs of her school. WJBF News Channel 6’s Capitol reporter, Robert Kittle, has more.

The House has passed a $787 billion plan to resuscitate the economy, handing President Barack Obama a big victory. The measure was passed on a 246-183, with no Republican “yes” votes. It will now go to the Senate, where a vote is expected later Friday.

The president of the peanut company accused of knowingly distributing salmonella-tainted peanut products and the manager of the company’s plant in Blakely, Ga., refused Wednesday to answer the questions of a congressional panel. Stewart Parnell of Lynchburg, Va., the president, and Sammy Lightsey, manager of the plant where investigators believe the contaminated peanut butter originated, took the Fifth. Each invoked his constitutional right not to incriminate himself, refusing to answer the questions of the investigations panel of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Amy Dominello has more.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced agreement on an economic stimulus bill. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Reid said the legislation should create 3.5 million jobs once President Barack Obama signs it into law and it takes effect.

Internal e-mails indicate the owner of a peanut company urged his workers to ship tainted products after receiving test results identifying salmonella.

President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan has passed the Senate and is on its way to difficult House-Senate negotiations.

President Barack Obama takes his case for a massive economic stimulus direct to the people Monday night with his first prime-time news conference. Let us know your thoughts on the PResident’s proposed economic stimulus package in our web poll.

A Georgia congressman is asking lawmakers for a second time to mandate new safety regulations against industrial dust explosions such as the one that killed 14 workers at a sugar refinery near Savannah a year ago.